Anyone wanna listen & judge my band's unreleased EP?

My band 'Brighter By The Hour' is in our final stages of finishing our EP. We've got what is one of the 'almost completely final' mixes that we're going to be listening to over the next few weeks to make a final list of anything that needs to be edited/re-mixed/tweaked/etc.

If any of you guys need to kill any time at work, or just want something nifty to listen to, take a mere half-hour and listen through it. All you gotta do is listen to it over a couplea days, write down anything that you particularly DON'T like or that you think should be done differently, and email it to me. In exchange for your time, when the hardcopy is released in the next month or 2, you'll receive a free copy in the mail - I'll even pay the postage. Now, that's not to say if you PM or respond and say 'I listened to it, sounds great!' I'm just going to send you a CD - actually put a little effort into it, haha. I'm only 'offering' this to Hondaswap - no other forums or groups of people I know are getting this. Not that it's some huge deal like we're someone famous or anything, but it's better than plugging you guys to buy my album, haha.

Listen for anything and everything you find unpleasant - any timing flaws, spots that sound thin, spots where one part is too loud, indiscrepancies from track to track, etc.

Here's an HD full-album track on Youtube, if you like I can give you a download link.

I can't figure out how to embed it here in HD, so be sure and click and put it in 1080 or whatever for good sound quality.

So far I have only had time to listen to the first track and I am listening to it on my laptop. I will listen to the rest on real speakers when I get home. First thing I noticed was a lot of compression on the guitar. It sounds like the attack is to fast maybe. Every time the guitar comes in I can noticeably hear the compression. I also feel like the drums are to far away, if that makes sense. I am having a hard time hearing the snare. It needs more punch. I would comment on the bass, but I am pretty sure that its just my computer. This is not really my style of music, but it sounds really clean as far as the tracking goes. I will listen some more later and get back to you.

There's some balance issues, but it might just be youtube compression. they are known for this, even at 1080p.

it's mid-bass heavy. like 240hz ish. muddy.
low tightness isn't there because it's buried in this mud. I think that's what brian E is getting at with the kick drum not being there.
It almost sounds like a marching drum corp 'snare-style' bass drum, i don't know what they are called. Look like big toms but held like a snare and played with mallets not sticks.

guitars need a tit more presence or less high cut on the eq after 4khz on the first track. They are buried in the mix too much I think. When vox are on, the guitar almost goes away into the background. 2nd track on, it's a much better tone.

There's a tom that is REALLY pronounced. lower one, not a higher one and not the floor tom, so probably your mid/2nd tom. It literally jumps out at you. seems to be like this on most tracks. kill it back -3db or so.

The bass guitar is too a bit too snappy. it's more percussive than it should be, due to highs, because it's not being slapped. I was like 'why are there finger snaps in this' and then it made sense. at the very least, try to put a low pass cross over on the bass to make that less pronounced, maybe a nice soft 6db/octave roll off after 3500 hz?

Over all, for a 'home studio' recording, it's very well done and most ep's are of lesser quality.

its still a HAIR mid bass heavy on sedated, and my comments about the bass gtr still apply, only it's not the bass gtr, it's your kick drum. HA! couldn't even make that out on the yt version.

Yeah, the kick drum needs some work. too much bite, not enough boom.

Click to expand...

I was going to ask him about the mic'ing and such. Cuz yeah, the kick isn't fat enough, really the snare isn't either. Should have a little more punch. I would mix more lead vocals into it - maybe fatten that up a little too - the chorus sounds good.

What mic is on the kick? Sounds like an AKG D-12. The vocal mix is better in Sedated. Sounds pretty good.